I can speak french, but I am the first to admit that when it comes to writing it, I panic. Like with maths. At work, I stick to writing carefully pre-prepared sentences that may be adapted if necessary. My colleagues must think that I am very dull and limited.
I blame it on my home school education. We had rather a lot of choice about what to ’study’. And out in the Sahara there were not many headmasters looking over our shoulders. It is not that we didn’t learn a huge amount, but the boring books with grammar and mathematics tended to get pushed back into the cardboard box from whence they came.
But now, it is all coming back to haunt me. My boys are coming home from school wanting help with their french homework and needing to learn their times tables. Fortunately the grammar does not seem to worry them and I happily learn along with them.
As for the times tables and the spelling, we find that the kitchen tiles are very useful.
What you do is this. You count the number of tiles in a straight line as there are spellings or tables (ie 12). Then the child stands on the first square and you sit on a stool at the end of the row with a bowl full of Haribo sweets or squares of chocolate. For every word or sum they get right they move forward one square. For every one they get wrong… you guessed it. Eventually they make it to the sweetie bowl (which may now be half empty if it was chocolate!)
Well, it works now. I’m not sure what I will do when it comes to secondary school ‘devoirs’.
According to Dr. Kifah Al-Ramali of the Gaza Islamic University, beauty contests are yet another part of the eternal Western plot against Islam. The true beauty queen, according to Cousin Itt Dr. Al-Ramali, is the “jihad mother” who waits patiently while her menfolk blow themselves up or otherwise get themselves killed trying to murder Jews:
From the transcript:
The real Palestinian beauty queen is the Jihad-fighting mother, the mother who perseveres and endures the siege, the mother who says: We will suffer hunger, but we will not bow down, the mother who sacrificed martyrs and demonstrated forbearance. She is the wife of the martyr, who left her in the prime of life, with her children, yet she says: I will persevere, and I will raise my children to be mujahideen. She is the mother who has lost her husband, her sons, her daughters, her home and her shelter, yet she displays forbearance. She is the queen of the women of the world in its entirety, not just of Palestine.
Of course, the real target of the Evil Beauty Contest Plot(tm) is Muslim men. Dr. Al-Ramali explains:
The enemies of Allah have studied the mentality of the Muslims, and have studied what harms their religion and their faith. They have studied how to infiltrate our society. First, they intervened in women’s [issues]. This is because they know that the prophet Muhammad said: “The greatest temptation for men is women.” Women are the greatest temptation. They know what weapon to use to fight [Muslim] society. Allah sowed in men the attraction to women, and vice versa.
Devious, isn’t it? The Crusaders (that’s us) and the Jews (We’re their puppets, you know) will distract brave, brave mujahideen from blowing up Jews by showing them a little skin. That’s why women have to be covered, you see: men are unable to control themselves around an “immodest” woman, like a cat that sees uncovered meat. In other words, as Ayaan Hirsi Ali has pointed out, under Islam women are responsible for the sexual behavior and misbehavior of men. To come back to Dr. Al-Ramali’s sick mind arguments, this is why beauty contests are evil: to participate in them is to allow oneself to be used as a weapon against Islam and to avoid one’s duty as a mujahideen-making machine.
With “intellectuals” like this, is it any wonder Palestinian society is hopeless?
RELATED: More anti-Semitic tripe from the good doctor. In an earlier panel interview, she tells us that Judaism teaches its followers that it is okay to rape and murder non-Jews:
The killing of Palestinian women, and women in general, by the Jews is not a random thing. Rather, it is their ideology, which is taught to their children in their curricula. It is mentioned in the books of the Torah. I will present some short samples, although their books are full of this. For instance, the greatest Jewish scholar, on whom they completely rely, Maimonides, wrote in his book that the Jews have the right to rape non-believing women. By non-believing, he meant non-Jewish.
Read the full transcript and watch the video. Her co-panelists are equally charming.
Well, the inevitable has happened and I have this week received two brown envelopes through the post that I have been dreading for some time now. Until the envelopes arrived, I could just stay undecided for that bit longer but now they are here, I really can’t put it off anymore and I need to make my mind up.
Swine flu jab – to do or not to do???
My two youngest tiddlers have been ‘invited’ to come along to the surgery to have their Swine flu jabs as they are both in the under-5’s category. Now, I must say that I am not normally anti-imms at all – all four of my children have had all of the recommended jabs included the combined MMR and to be honest, I have never before questioned whether or not to have them done. But the swine flu jab is different and I know many other parents share the same dilemma of whether or not to have it done.
There just seems to be so much conflicting information and the whole thing seems to have been so rushed through too which makes me even more uneasy. Like anyone else, I guess it is all about weighing up the pros and cons of these things but when you don’t know if the arguments for or against are reliable, then it makes it so much harder to decide. So many cases that you hear of seem to be so extreme and I can’t seem to be able sort from the wood from the trees as it were to find some middle ground.
There is some comfort in the fact that I know that I am not alone in being undecided but I just don’t know what to do. To be honest, my gut instinct says not to have them done as I still have so many doubts. But if I don’t get the jabs and they were to contract the dreaded Swine flu, then how could I ever ever forgive myself? I keep going round and round in circles and the more I look into cases for and against – the more confused I am!
At the primary school where my ten-year old daughter goes, which is also attached to the nursery where my three-year old goes, there have actually been several cases of children having Swine flu but this was back in September/October and there have been no more recent outbreaks. In my mind, I can’t help but think that if she was going to contract it then she would have done by now and then passed the lurgy on to the rest of us including my two youngest. But I know that this is quite an irrational way of looking at things as I know there are so many other ways for the virus to be passed on and I know their age makes them all the more vulnerable.
So that’s where I am.. Basically, errrr no further than I was when it was first announced that all under-5’s should be immunised! I would so love to hear if you too have had to make this decision and my hope in posting this blog is that it may go some way to help me to make my choice….
KOGIWU (ko-gee-woo) – an acronym for the Kingdom of God is Within U – a reminder that faith is an everyday journey
The other night I had the pleasure of being in the audience of my daughter’s Middle School Winter Choral Concert. She attends an Independent secular school. The program was beautifully choreographed, the high school students and middle school students performed their own songs and sang together as a group for a final Irving Berlin piece.
The songs they sang so beautifully were a mix of contemporary music along with traditional favorites. I was struck and pleasantly surprised that there were a few non-secular songs woven into the program. Joyce Eilers My Lord was sung with such enthusiasm. It was wonderful. I later learned that particular arrangement of My Lord is one of the most popular choir selections ever. I Believe from the musical Spring Awakenings was a beautiful piece that was performed and it has a very spiritual tone.
Hallelujah!, the chorus from Handel’s Messiah was the last piece the High School Concert Choir sang. The director shared with the audience that the Hallelujah! at 268 years old is the most recognized piece of music in the world.
On our ride home we talked about how interesting the trivia was about the Hallelujah! My daughter shared with me that just that night the #1 song downloaded on ITunes was a song of the same name, Hallelujah performed by Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris during the Hope for Haiti Telethon. The lyrics for this Hallelujah were written by Leonard Cohen. I thought how wonderful that Hallelujah, a word that is a thanksgiving or praise to God, has endured the popularity of so many years and now is the forefront in pop culture. That’s KOGIWU!
If you would like to learn more about KOGIWU, visit the About KOGIWU and How to Apply KOGIWU to Your Life posts on this blog.
Genres: Fantasy, contemporary fantasy, short stories
ISBN: 9781596061590
Intended audience: “written for nieces, nephews, and the children of friends” (p. 10)
Number of pages: 64
Setting: Three stories are set in the woods; one is set in a neighborhood, and another along the sea shore
Time period: Contemporary
Description: Following a short introduction, “Kissing Frogs”, are five short magical tales – “What the Mouse Found”, “Gnomin’ in the Gloamin’”, “Oakey Bedokey”, “Maple Sugar”, and “Tip and the Lion”. (The limited edition – which is not what I read – also contains “The Songs of Timothy Tomtit”).
Illustrations: At the beginning of the first four stories is a picture of a stuffed creature who is one of the main characters in the story. These creatures were made by de Lint’s wife, Mary Ann Harris, and placed in an earthy setting prior to having their pictures taken. Fairies and butterflies also adorn the pages throughout the book.
Appeal factors:
Pacing: Moderate pacing combined with the short length of these stories, make this a very quick read.
Characterization: The stories are all told in third person and each contains at least one wonderfully magical character.
Frame: The introduction, “Kissing Frogs”, establishes the frame for this collection of stories. The stories are written in a classic fairy tale style.
Story line: Delightful stories which reawaken a sense of magic and wonder.
Subject headings:
From WorldCat:
Fantasy fiction, Canadian.
Similar authors:
Neil Gaiman
Diana Wynne Jones
Jane Yolen
Personal notes: Like most of Charles de Lint’s work, I loved this book.
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The plight of Haiti has touched everyone in Westport — young and old.
Kings Highway Elementary School students count the nearly $4,000 they collected.
Last week the Kings Highway Elementary School Caring Council — students who spearhead acts of kindness and spirit during the school year — organized a collection for the devastated land.
All week long, the youngsters collected coins in glass jars. On Friday they gathered the donations in huge, heavy buckets, jars and cans. In just 5 days students, staff and families raised $3,997.96. (What — no one added an extra $2.04 to make it an even 4K?)
On Friday KHS PTA Social Action Committee chair Merideth Haas and her son Henry presented a check to Save the Children — the Westport-based relief organization.
There’s no better lesson in thinking locally, and acting globally.
As a young man wandering the high-mountain trails, I fished, hunted, and trapped much of my food—and sometimes, even with the quarry in the sights of my rife, I went hungry.
Shortly after I was discharged from the military at 18 years of age, I headed for the high country. I had been alone in the mountains for a almost two weeks and had been subsisting on fried grasshoppers, crayfish, and trout. Game seemed to have vanished, taking their tracks with them. Finally, after three days without food, I found the fresh sign of a deer, and without hesitation, I began tracking it. Following its trail was easy. Being quiet was difficult, however, because the country was so dry that everything crackled underfoot even though I was wearing moccasins, which muffled the sounds of my steps.
I track the deer for several hours as its trail led me up through the spruce-fir forest into clumps of subalpine firs interspersed with small meadows. It was late afternoon when I slipped into a clump of subalpine firs and, peering through their boughs on the far side, saw the deer, a magnificent buck. I stood motionless, watching it, feeling the warmth of the sun, seeing the wispy clouds sweeping clean the great, blue vault of the sky. Somewhere a Swainson thrush called, its liquid melody drifting on the soft breeze. Flies buzzed. A hawk screamed. I stood in a moment of Cosmic perfection, a moment in which I disappeared into the nothingness from which all creation comes and into which all creation returns.
“My brother,” I whispered quietly, “today I go hungry, for today is a day for you to live. If I see you tomorrow, I will feast on your body, but not today.” I then turned and walked away without the deer’s ever knowing I was there. I never saw it again.
If you want to contact me, you can visit my website. If you wish, you can also read an article about what is important to me and/or you can listen to me give a presentation.
Ask any teacher how things are going, and you’ll usually hear the worst. We suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune daily, and we take is personally when we aren’t able to deflect or defeat every one. Most teachers are pretty convinced that if they just taught better, rearranged their room, cleaned up, was prepped a month ahead, and could make a connection with that one kid, we would actually be pretty good teachers. Not great, not fabulous, not the best, but pretty good. Not reaching goals or being successful KILLS us.
This week, for its 4 days, was indeed both trying and terrific (not in a terrific way, but in an accomplished way. I really just like alliteration). First, my students are STILL struggling with fractions. Both making equivalent fractions as well as simplifying fractions is HARD for most. I have very few successful students. We need to move onto ratios. They noticed that ratios are like fractions. FRICK! You could hear a cold, joy-sucking wind come through the room.
On top of that, my newest student is not behaving in the most positive manner. He skirts the line between good and bad. He’s not bad, but he’s not good either. Sitting here writing this and reflecting, I FINALLY get what his mother meant when she told me to contact them for any little thing at all. FRICK! I dropped the ball. SIGH.
However, I had THREE excellent conversations with kids yesterday and two with adults. The kids are always more powerful, because that’s why you’re there. One poor bunny is depressed — really depressed. He’s got a row to hoe that I wouldn’t hand to my worst enemy. Truly. Here he is 11, maybe 12 feeling the weight of the world. He has very few people who are dependable in his life. He’s a good kid, really. He’s smart too. He just can’t see it for all the stuff going on. At first, I was concerned because, as a K-8, we don’t have the normal resources that other middle schools have (DON’T GET ME STARTED!). However, when push came to shove, he didn’t want those resources. He feels that it’s “just talking” and “nothing gets done.” He never felt better in the past (obviously this is not a new issue). That said, we figured out a way to move forward, the two of us. I’m checking in with him on Monday, and I’ll follow up as best I can with his adults. For right now, I’ll ease my demand and see if I can’t just get the poor bunny to check back in.
Another “newer” student came in with her family (she arrived in our class in late October, early November). I wasn’t sure about her at first, nor was she about me. She has been working to get her “sea legs” and hasn’t always been successful. However, I’ve noticed positive changes in her since we started in January. She plays around a little less. She asks for help me. She is really, really trying to improve. She is completely likable, and so are her parents. We had a positive conversation, and I feel we can move forward in a good light. We have a plan for her. It’s good, because she really is a sweet, sweet girl.
The last boy, I don’t know. I was doing lunch supervision and he was removed from class because he was on red (card system). He was explaining to me that he did what was asked. I listened, but I have no clue. I wasn’t present. However, I read his story plan. I didn’t agree with it. So we talked about it. Low and behold he made inferences, made different choices about how to move the story along, and added to his plan. When I left, he was actually smiling. In detention from his class and smiling, weird but, I guess, preferable.
I shan’t go into more detail about the tragedies, because they weren’t really tragic — just annoying. Seeing the good makes me realize that if I wasn’t accomplished in the day to day operations, I made a difference to 3 people yesterday. I guess that’s all you can do sometimes.
Welcome the Year of the Tiger!
February 6, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Presented by P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, this free family festival includes something for everyone. Art activities, table tennis and martial arts demonstrations, film screenings, and, of course, free food provided by P.F. Chang’s China Bistro.
For more information about the festival and to learn how to win free tickets to see the popular exhibition Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor, click here. Additional support for the Chinese New Year Festival provided by The PIMCO Foundation.
I tried many times to write songs or poetry, but I never seemed to have the knack. Somehow, after giving birth, I have this new talent as a songwriter. You know what I’m talking about moms. You know, you make up little ditties everyday to entertain your little one(s). You sing about poop, teething, them mashing up their food, all that wonderful stuff. Even fun stuff too!
Some of my first compositions were food-related. I’d decided that I was going to make food fun – those foods that kids typically hate. I started with green beans. It’s still a winner, even with baby #2. The Greek word for cooked green beans is “fassolakia.” So to the tune of the “Hallelujah Chorus,” I sing “Fa-ssola-kia! Fa-ssola-kia! Fassolakia! Fassolakia! Fasso-la-kia!” This tune also works for the girls’ names too and they love it, still. Next, I tackled peas. There are actually two Greek words that refer to peas – bisellia, and arakas. Don’t know where I got the tune, but in a loud, deep voice, I sing “Beeee-sellia! Bisellia!” then in a softer, higher pitched voice; I chime in, “Arakas! Arakas!” So both kids love their beans and peas.
The most popular of my tunes would probably make Rick James a bit miffed. I’ve re-written his hit song, “Super Freak.” You’ll love this…
SUPER STINK
She’s a very stinky girl
The kind only loved by her mother.
She will never let your spirits down
When she flashes her big smile.
She likes her toys in her hand
Don’t you dare try to take them from her.
When I make my move to her room, it’s the right time
I can smell her all the way.
That girl is getting big now
The girl’s a super stink!
The kinda girl you read about in Parents’ Magazine
I’d really like to change her
Cause I can’t stand the stink!
She’s alright, she’s alright.
That girl’s alright with me, yeah.
She’s a Super Stink, Super Stink
She’s super stinky, yow!
This was a big hit with my older daughter. I started singing it one day to distract her as she wiggled around while I was trying to change a messy diaper. It was an instant hit. I sang it every time, and after a while she started to sing along. Even the “yow!” It was pretty funny! My younger daughter giggles through the entire song.
These are but a few examples of my new song writing ability. I have a whole new talent I never knew I had before. I don’t think I’m ready to call Burt Bacharach to see if we can collaborate, but hey, it’s good fun. Feel free to borrow my songs. I’m sure you have some fun ones too! Hey, whatever works, right?
It’s crazy to me how people convince themselves to do things that they inherently know are wrong. People will tell themselves whatever they have to in order to make something seem okay, if that thing is convenient for them. There are a huge number of people who will never in their lives admit that there is anything wrong with the way animals are treated in our society. They convince themselves that it is perfectly acceptable to raise animals in horrifyingly inhuman conditions, kill them for food, torment them in laboratories, and abuse them for entertainment. They do this by refusing to think about it, by pretending they don’t have a choice, by overlooking all the gory details, or by just plain lying to themselves.
I have heard so many of these lies and excuses from people I know over the years. People say they think it’s great that I don’t eat meat, but they just couldn’t do that, lie. Anyone can do it; it just takes a little bit of dedication. I have heard that they would like to stop eating meat, but they just couldn’t stay healthy on a vegetable based diet, lie. Meat is unhealthy. I don’t know of a single meat-eater who is anywhere near as healthy as I am. They tell me they don’t want to know about the conditions on factories farms because if they knew they couldn’t eat meat anymore and that would just be too hard for them, excuse. This is the one that really makes me mad. To say that you don’t want to know the truth because you know it would force you to do the right thing is just terribly selfish to me. Knowing that finding out the truth will cause you to change your mind is the best reason there is to find out the truth.
I find it extremely upsetting that people lie to themselves like this, but what I find even more upsetting is the way they do this to their children. From the day they are born, parents set their children up to live exactly the same way they do. From day one children are taught to lie to themselves and to justify things that are completely unjustifiable. Food is, of course, the most obvious example of this. Parents say that they are protecting their children by not telling them the truth about what they’re eating, but the truth is they are causing much more damage than they would by just telling them the truth.
I happen to feel that it is detrimental to lie to children about anything. If I have children one day, I have absolutely no intention of leading them to believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy although in the long run these lies are probably relatively harmless. But there are some lies that we tell to children that will continue to affect them for their entire lives. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we should tell our children everything. There is nothing wrong with censoring the more traumatic details of life to avoid upsetting a child, but they have a right to know the truth. You don’t have to take a kid into a delivery room when they ask where babies come from, and you don’t have to take them to a factory farm when they ask where bacon comes from. But you also shouldn’t tell them that babies are brought by storks or that bacon grows on trees.
I truly believe that at least ninety percent of all children would never eat meat if they knew what it really was. Don’t believe me? Here’s a challenge to any parents out there with small children. Try telling you kid that the chicken nuggets they’re eating are made out of those cute, fluffy, yellow birds and see if they still want to eat them. The only reason so many adults eat meat is because they have been trained to since they were children. By the time people realize the truth about what they’re eating it’s already ingrained into them that that’s just the way it is. Basically, parents lie to their children until the children are old enough to lie to themselves. I personally don’t think this is any way to live, and I definitely don’t think it’s any way to raise children.
So do me (and yourself) a favor, okay? If you want to keep eating meat fine, but at least be honest with yourself about why you are doing it. It’s not because there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s not because it’s necessary. It’s not because you can’t stop. It’s because it’s convenient. It’s because most other people do it. It’s because your parents told you to.
In quantum mechanics, the zero-point energy is the energy of the ground state of a system. Interestingly, this energy is not zero. For example, in the case of a simple molecule with two atoms, these atoms never cease vibrating back and forth – i.e. they always have energy.
Why do I bring this up on a Sunday morning?
Because children are like this.
Even in the middle of the night, when they are sleeping in your bed because they had a bad dream, they still squirm. They never stop squirming.
Not that I’ve had any experience with that in the last few hours…
by Ellie Whinnery, ChildFund Public Relations Manager
and Virginia Sowers, ChildFund Community Manager
As the devastating impact of the earthquake continues to unfold in Haiti, we spoke with ChildFund’s vice president in the Americas Region Dula James to gain some insights from her two years spent in Haiti as director for another international NGO.
“Haiti always seemed to be in a state of transition from one thing to another,” Dula notes. “Every time progress was made internally, it seemed like another disaster hit and every group working there had to start work all over again.”
In 2008, Hurricane Ike lashed Haiti, flooding the island, claiming lives and wreaking havoc on the country’s brittle infrastructure. The basics of life — running water, food security, electricity, roads, garbage disposal — have long been scarce in Port-au-Prince, which has a population of 3 million.
Urban poverty is prevalent in the capital, as evidenced by the numerous slum areas, Dula reports. These conditions have contributed to high incidences of drug problems and human trafficking issues.
“A high illiteracy rate exists among the population, because education is not free,” Dula says. Even though parents want to send their children to school, they do not have the capability to make that happen. Jobs are hard to come by in Haiti.
With the latest natural disaster, Haiti’s children — already in a precarious position — are now at even higher risk. Schools and other community structures are totally destroyed in Port-au-Prince.
As ChildFund selects a partner organization on the ground in Haiti, we are especially focused on child protection and keeping children at the center of recovery efforts and rebuilding.
The paucity of government resources and infrastructure has slowed the delivery of aid to Haiti after the earthquake, causing frustration. Yet, there is a ray of hope in this grim situation.
“Haitians are very resilient people with a strong faith, and they love their country fervently,” Dula says. “They are hardworking people even in the midst of abject poverty.”
If you would like to donate to Haiti through ChildFund, click here.
The summer of 2006 was one I will never forget. It was the summer that I spent a lot of time with my Korean friends whether it was tutoring children, meeting with my friends for a picnic or other gathering, and of course the death and funeral of my friend In Keun Choi. In Keun’s wife had a cousin come to Lincoln as a visiting research scholar for one year. Dr. Jung and hiw family were here for a year they never expected before they came because In Keun was not diagnosed until February 2006 and Dr. Jung and his family came in August 2005.
I had the privilege of tutoring his children Ashley, Christine and Tony the year they were here. They are very intelligent children and I enjoyed teaching them. For that year I looked forward to going to their apartment every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon to teach them English. I also looked forward to joining them for dinner each time and eating Korean food. I learned a lot about Korea and Korean culture from Dr. Jung and his family during our times together. We also enjoyed some fun times such as a Lincoln Saltdogs Baseball Game.
Tony and Christine with the Saltdogs Mascot
Two other Korean families joined us that day whose children I also tutored. Their children also met the Saltdogs Mascot. They enjoyed that and the games area more than the actual baseball game. The adults seemed to enjoy the game. We all enjoyed spending a summer evening together at the baseball park.
Our time at the Saltdogs Baseball game was our last time have a fun activity together before Dr. Jung and his family went back to Korea. I was grateful to be able to have a fun time with them as our last memory together after a long and difficult time watching our friend In Keun die from cancer.
About a week ago, Everett’s Bible curriculum presented a lesson on making choices. Everett started the lesson on his own, but when he decided to ask a question, I was quickly drawn in to studying with him. This was because I found it interesting and good. We continued reading the lesson, looking up Scripture, answering questions, and my favorite part, discussing all we were studying and what we knew to be true on this subject.
As we were winding the discussion down, I mentioned to Everett how much I liked that lesson and how grateful I was to have had it that day. “Are you gonna blog about it?” This kid knows me so well.
I confessed that I probably would blog about this lesson, acknowledging that his first clue to my intentions was my making a copy of the lesson for my own use before anything was written on it. I haven’t gotten around to it yet due to extreme lack of extra time, and consequently Everett asked again if I ever blogged about his lesson that we liked so much.
You’ve probably noticed that I have a pattern of posting verses from the book of Proverbs whose chapter coincides with the date. I read a chapter of Proverbs every morning to keep the wisdom found there fresh on my mind. So today as I read the 14th chapter of Proverbs, my thoughts were drawn to the same subject of Everett’s recent lesson, making choices.
Life is full of choices. I make choices for myself. As a parent I make many choices concerning the well-being of my children. Some choices seem simple. Some seem extremely difficult. But the basic principles found in the truth of the Bible for making choices apply to every one of them. If I act upon these truths by obeying God’s Word, I will find security and live in a way that is pleasing to God, and therefore bring him glory.
To begin with I’ll share the verses I read this morning which spoke to me about choices.
Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge. The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving. Proverbs 14:7-8
The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps. One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless. Proverbs 14:15-16
Wisdom rests in the heart of a man of understanding, but it makes itself known even in the midst of fools. Proverbs 14:33
I have to keep in mind that every word of God is true. I must take Scripture for what it is worth without ignoring even one syllable. I’m going to use these verses to strengthen me and give me confidence in what God will have me choose.
I hate to close without completing my thoughts on this subject, but it is time to begin our school day. Besides, I have a daughter who told me she doesn’t have time to read my blog posts because they are too long. I think maybe it’s because she’s not interested. That’s a joke, because I’ve already teased her about it. She is not required to read or agree with anything I write. I’ll still feed her and give her a roof over her head. So I’m going to get to the rest of the Bible verses I want to share in another post as time permits. The same daughter doesn’t really like blogging in series, either, but I can’t make everybody happy. I just have to do what I have to do.
Tomorrow I run! Coach Jen wants me to run for 45 minutes…warm up and then it zone 3 for 10 minutes, then zones 1-2 for the rest of the run. I’m excited and maybe a little nervous about it. I guess because of the rough time I had last run.
I’m also breaking out the new pair of Brooks running shoes tomorrow that I picked up at Runners High ‘n Tri last week…yay! New shoes!
Anyone up for a group run Sunday? Dave is out this week…anyone want to run? I’m talking early again, like 7am, for an hour and 15…who is in? Let me know!
Finally, I’ve been a putz and not mentioned 2 important people who have sponsored me- my bosses Mike and Al. They’ve been super supportive, asking how it’s going everyday, or just letting me vent. They decided they wanted to help…and they picked up my gym membership for a year! Truly an unexpected and awesome surprise…definitely making them 2 of the best bosses, and friends one can have! Mike, Al…thank you!
And remember to wear red on Friday, February 5th for the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign!
I’m wearing red for K…
…who will you wear red for?
For all those people who want to find out if your partner is cheating or the password to your partner’s facebook/myspace/e-mail/msn and other. Or if you are a parent worrying about what your kid might be doing at the computer behind closed doors.
Business going bad? Time to check up on your employees surfing habits. But how to do this, without getting caught trying to get some information?
Keep reading, I have the solution for all of you people. I chose to introduce you to a keylogging/surveillance program after finally finding the tool that will give myself some answers to questions regarding my own relationship. I have searched for quite a long time and thought that there just aren’t any effective programs out there yet. But I found out that there is, it’s called All In One Keylogger, I gave it a try and I was honestly said frightened about the information it is able to collect, it will give you the answers to all your questions and suspiciousness.
The program fits for:
a) People in a relationship b) Business administration, finding out what your employees do when they “work” c) Parents who want to keep track of their kids.
From their homepage you can read about the futures of All In One Keylogger, as I find it a bit pointless to copy paste whole production info page. Don’t be scared off by the word keylogger, YOU are the master of the program, only you will ever have control of the logs, pictures and audio that it monitors. Below is a lot of information about the features and what the program does, I recommend to read it in order to get a idea about the program.
I chose to speak more about my personal experiences of the program instead of talking about all the futures, those can all be found by following the link above to the product site.
What does All In One Keylogger do?
All In One Keylogger logs all keystrokes and passwords that have been typed into crypted files on your computer, it tracks all windows and applications that have been launched, clipboard, chat conversations (sent and received), all Web sites that have been visited, e-mails sent and received.
You can set it to take screen snapshots every few seconds or on each mouse click, just like a surveillance camera. It can also record Microphone sounds and restrict the access to specified Web sites and applications if wanted. It can even be set up to send these logs to your e-mail or FTP for tracking when you are away!
Personally I hate it the times I get the feeling in my stomach that something might be going on when I’m away from my partner, this is the solution to get rid of the paranoia, or to get proof for your suspicions. It snaps up all usernames and passwords into the very easily readable log viewer supported in the All In One Keylogger program. And maybe even more importantly you can set it up to take screen snapshots every few seconds and view the pictures later. I chose to divide the potential usage areas into different categories, you might wonder what the All In One Keylogger could be good for, I’ll tell you.
Relationship: In the survey that took place in United States in the year of 2005 which includes married couples only, 56% of the participants of the survey said that during their marriage they had at least one sexual encounter with a person that is not their spouse. Are you living in a relationship and suspect that your partner is cheating on you, or doing other stuff he/she shouldn’t be doing on your/her computer (flirting harshly on community sites, MSN messenger contacts, webcam usage, microphone usage or visiting sites that are uncomfortable in a relationship.. the list goes on.
This is where All In One Keylogger can be there to save you from wasting time on your relationship, you wonder what your partner does when he/she is on the computer and you are away or working night shift. Well there is no reason to keep wondering and being paranoid about what she might be doing, you can find it out directly by downloading the trial version straight away (it is amazingly easy to set up, and the best part is that it is totally undetectable/invisible in windows, so no one can find out it’s installed and running.. read more on product site for more detailed info).
It basically records all keystrokes, and shows in which program the text has been typed in, stores visited sites and you can set it up to take a picture of the screen for example every 10 seconds!
Employers: In the survey that took place in Britain in the year 2006, 87% of the employees participating in the survey said that they surf on the internet during their work at least once a week. 73% of them said that they surf at least once a day. 23% of them said that they dedicate more time to surfing on the internet than to their work! In the additional survey that took place in the same year answered 36% of the employers, participants of the survey mentioned that they are afraid that secrets of the company will be sent to their competitors from the company computers by their employees. 4% announced that they fell victim to the theft of company secrets by their workers from the company computers.
Are you running a small sized company, and wonder why you aren’t getting as much work done as you should be getting. Well the solution is here, with All In One Keylogger you can make sure who are actually working and who are not. The result can be scary, you might find out that the employee is actually playing online poker half day or such, no wonder that the results aren’t so promising. There are a lot of people who don’t care as long as their getting paid, so they will just entertain themselves in some way instead of actually working.
Download trial (7 days free): http://www.plimus.com/jsp/download_trial.jsp?contractId=1682768&referrer=Niar
Parents: Today, almost every child has access to internet. This comes thanks to the advance in technology, but has also risks involved. Did you know that: The average age when the children encounter pornography in the internet is 11? The age of the largest pornography consumer group in the internet is between 12 to 17? 85% of children between the ages 6-16 encountered pornographic content intentionally or unintentionally (most of them while preparing their homework). 25% of children between ages 9-17 will freely disclose their home address in the internet? 60% of children who committed suicide, declared their intentions online directly or indirectly? One in five children who use the computer chat rooms has been approached over the internet by pedophiles? Only 25% of youth who received sexual solicitation told a parent.
The children today are very sophisticated and most of us parents don’t have the knowledge to know what they are doing behind their closed doors in front of the computer. Are they browsing to inappropriate websites, are they downloading illegal content using P2P programs that will in the future result in lawsuits of thousands of dollars? What personal information they disclose about themselves, are they talking to adults, or maybe they meet them?
All In One Keylogger has many features:
No activity on your computer will be able to evade this high quality Keylogger. Does your kid make secret chat conversations with adult strangers? Maybe even with a pedophile that searches for his next victim? Does he surf to pornographic sites? Maybe he even exposes his personal details where he is not supposed to? Does he use P2P programs, sharing copyrighted materials which could constitute a pretext to a lawsuit of tens thousands of dollars? Have you ever wondered why does your husband “work” on his computer so late at the night? Does he have a secret online lover?Have you ever wondered who is your wife’s “partner” she talks with all the time? Do your employees surf on the internet instead of doing their work which you pay them for? Do they sell company secretes to your competitors? A high quality Keylogger should give you the answers to all these questions. No activity will be able to evade from it. No undesirable activity will be able to evade from you! As said, a high quality Keylogger is an “All In One Keylogger”, so just press this link to download “All In One Keylogger”:
Download trial (7 days free): http://www.plimus.com/jsp/download_trial.jsp?contractId=1682768&referrer=Niar
Link for buying full version: https://www.plimus.com/jsp/buynow.jsp?contractId=1682768&referrer=Niar
I tried to bring up the most important things in this article, but there sure is more to read if you still aren’t sure, simply visit the links provided and read more about people who have bought the product or view the awards that the product has received. Everyone has different use or needs of the program, and it sure was a relief to my head after finally getting answer to my questions using this brilliant program.
I highly recommend educators and parents to read the cover story in TIME magazine (Vol.171. No.8) by Claudia Wallis. Definitely a controversial article for some and enlightening for others. Either way it brings about conversation and debate that is needed to improve teaching. An investment in all of our future. The article also talks about invigorating the profession by providing teachers with other professional opportunities, like the chance to grow in the job, learn from the best of their peers, show leadership and have a voice in decision-making, including how their work is judged. Many school districts in BC have already made a serious investment into providing this time of change. To read this article please click on link below:
More related articles follow on topics such as, How They Do It Abroad: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1713557,00.html
A fascinating look at education around the world leads one to the documentary Two Million Minutes, it compares how American students measure up to those in India and China. http://2mminutes.com
We organised a Christmas Outing for Children this xmas on Sunday, 20 December 2009 from 9.15am to 4.30pm. Our members, Saba and Priya, were the tour guides for the day!
The programme was ‘Under The Sea’ IMAX movie, Snow playing @ Snow City and Ice Making @ Snow City.
Christmas is a time of giving, therefore we extended invitations to 12 selected needy families in the community at a further subsidized rate.
The turnout was overwhelming and there were a total of 39 participants registered, out of which 12 came under the subsidized scheme.
Unfortunately, Snow City did not allow us to take photos of snow play to show how much fun the kids had.
This morning Al and I were scheduled to participate in the Klondike Derby, a Boy Scout event that emphasizes teamwork and outdoor skills. Webelos Scouts get to go along to see what it’s like to be a Boy Scout. Webelos parents get to go along because the younger boys still need more adult supervision. But no one got to go this morning because at 9 o’clock, the temperature was still six degrees below zero, and Scout leaders decided it would be better to wait till next weekend and hope for slightly warmer weather.
This parent was not at all disappointed. But my son was, so I suggested we go outside and make a snowman. I looked for creative snowman ideas on the internet, while my son came up with his own idea, which involved lots of baseball caps. I’m not sure we could have managed to make a snowman big enough to use baseball caps for buttons, but it quickly became obvious once I got outside that we weren’t going to make a traditional three-ball snowman at all. This powdery stuff just doesn’t pack.
I had seen one snowman on the internet that gave me an idea, however. It’s a candy snowman, made to look like a mostly melted snowman. The snow we have outside isn’t melting anytime soon, but the closest we could come to a snowman was a shapeless mass that might look like it was melting. Having no better ideas, my son agreed, and we set about making Defrosty. I don’t think he’ll win the local snowman building contest, but he has a certain charm.
If you’d like to check out some other unusual snowmen, here is the world’s smallest “snowman.” He’s actually made of tin and platinum, not snow, but at 1/5 the width of a human hair, I guess he’s impressive just for his diminutive size. Probably snow doesn’t come that small.
At the other end of the size scale, the town of Bethel, Maine, holds the world’s record for the biggest snowman. In 1999, they made Angus, 113 feet tall. In 2008, since no one else had surpassed their record, they decided to do it themselves. This time they made a snowwoman, Olympia, who was 122 feet tall. You may get an idea of her size when you realize that her eyelashes are skis. She weighed 13 million pounds, and took until July of that year to melt. (Angus had melted in June.)
In order to raise Godly children you must submit to Jesus Christ and allow him to be your partner in raising your children. Difficult to hear, but children are for the majority of the time a reflection of their home. Truthfully the appple does not fall far from the tree. The journey of raising a child as a single parent must never be traveled alone but must be traveled with Jesus Christ as your heavenly partner who cares and loves your child more than you do. Do not forget you are the steward of the child but Jesus Christ is the Creator of that child first.
Diamonds from African countries have been funding guerrilla wars for decades. But they’re not the only precious gems with blood on their hands. Here are four more prized resources that are fraught with conflict.
RUBIES
Location: Burma
Product: Burmese rubies are famous for their distinctive dark “pigeon’s blood” color. Both the United States and the European Union ban Burmese gems, but outside groups estimate the junta still reaped almost $300 million from rubies in the 2006 fiscal year.
Casualties: The brutal Burmese junta, which earns much of its hard currency from the sale of gems, holds direct stakes in many of the mines and conducts official auctions to augment the profits made from illegal smuggling. At the mines themselves, child labor and diseases such as HIV/AIDS are common.
COLTAN
Location: Democratic Republic of the Congo
Product: Coltan, short for columbite-tantalite, a metallic ore that contains elements used in cell phones, is mined in the DRC’s war-ravaged Kivu region. The U.N. estimates the DRC made $750 million worth of profits from coltan between 2000 and 2004.
Casualties: The 13-year-old civil conflict, which has so far claimed 5 million lives and pulled in armies from Rwanda and Uganda, is essentially a resource war over the DRC’s minerals: vast reserves of diamonds, gold, tungsten, tin, and coltan. There have also been 200,000 recorded cases of sexual violence against women and girls, not to mention the destruction of one of the world’s most endangered rain forests.
BAUXITE
Location: Guinea
Product: The West African republic of Guinea is the world’s primary supplier of bauxite ore, used to make the aluminum that goes in everything from soda cans to airplanes. Twenty percent of Guinea’s GDP, or $857 million a year, comes from its bauxite-dominated mining industry. A Chinese firm recently agreed to invest $7 billion in Guinean infrastructure in return for mining rights.
Casualties: The bauxite bounty has not trickled down to the 70 percent of Guineans living in poverty, though mining companies are technically supposed to pay development taxes to their local communities. Meanwhile, bauxite revenues have enabled the military junta to consolidate power and ignore international sanctions.
EMERALDS
Location: Colombia
Product: Colombia is the world’s leading exporter of emeralds, accounting for half of the $280 million a year global trade.
Casualties: Emerald mafias fought a bloody “green war” in the 1980s to keep drug cartels out of the business. Violence from the rural Boyacá area extended to Bogotá, killing more than 3,500 people. Victor Carranza, the country’s shady emerald czar, is accused of funding paramilitary groups, and he served jail time between 1998 and 2002 for organizing death squads. As for the mines, they rely on the children and wives of men killed in the region’s ongoing violence.
Kolya’s nanny returned back from her end-of-year holidays this week. Today she requested a Conversation. She was very afraid to tell me this.
Had I noticed that she had lost some weight? she asked.
I hadn’t.
Yes, she lost weight. During the holidays she was sick and could not eat well. She went to the doctor. The doctor says she’s pregnant.
Wow, I say, congratulations.
No, she says. This is not good. She didn’t want more children. She’s not happy about this, she says.
But you want to keep the baby?
If it were only one month, I would get that abortion, she says. But it is too far for that, she says.It’s funny, she says, because she didn’t feel anything, any movement of a baby.
How far along is it? I ask
Five months, she says, looking like she’s asking a question.
So the baby is due in May? I say.
She is not sure, she says. Maybe not so soon. The doctor couldn’t tell boy or girl yet.
Who is the father, I ask. Does he know? Is he happy?
The father is her current boyfriend. He is very happy. It is his first child. But for her, it is her third child. She has two girls. One lives in the Eastern Cape with her ex-husband’s family. The other lives with her. She did not want more children.
You did not want more? You were using contraception?
Yes, she says. She was taking the pills.
Every day?
Yes, every day. But maybe some days she did not take them so early in the morning.
You’re brave, I say. To have unprotected sex in these times.
No! she says. We used condoms every time. Maybe one time the condom burst.
Pills and condoms? I say. Are you sure?
I don’t know how it happened, she says.
The story is not adding up, of course. The sheer piling up of improbabilities, of inconsistencies. It’s not quite holding together. I don’t say that though.
She was so worried to tell me, she says. She was worried to lose her job.
Why would you lose your job?
Some ladies don’t like their nannies to be pregnant, she says. In case they are moody. In case they can’t work properly.
I assure her that her job will be okay, though we’ll need to find someone to help with Kolya when she’s off work to have the baby. It will have to be someone trustworthy.
Yes, she says. You can’t trust anyone. You can come back to work and find you have no job, because they will take your job.
I am not talking about that kind of trustworthiness. I realise we have different things to lose.
What will you do about looking after the baby though?
The family must look after the baby, she says. My boyfriend, his family will do everything. But if it is a boy, I will do everything for that baby, she says. If it is a girl, maybe it must go to the Eastern Cape.
No, I cry, don’t say that. NO! echoes Kolya, restless and tired of our conversation. No no no no no!
I leave the conversation unsettled. How much of this story is written by fear? Fear that if she does not give her boyfriend a child, that he will leave her for someone who will. Fear that only two girls is not enough; surely a woman must produce a son. Fear that if she does give him a child, she is saddled with an additional responsibility she did not want. Is she truly so ignorant about conception and contraception? Or is her ignorance scripted rather by fear, fear that a white woman can surely never understand, that a white woman seeks only to blame. Fear that I may be angry about a deliberate pregnancy whereas an accidental one can surely not be her fault. I wonder about the child in her belly. If it is a girl, it will be all but abandoned to relatives in a distant rural place. If it is a boy, then her youngest daughter will be sent away to make way for his privilege. It’s a curiously political drama, archaic, horrific and yet utterly ordinary.
“You have to be the parent your child needs you to be,” she told me, ”not the one you expected to be.”
This piece of advice was offered to me by a veteran parent at the beginning of my odyssey through the children’s mental health system. I was at a parent support meeting hoping to learn something that I could grab on to. Most of the professionals in our lives were quick to tell me the things they thought were wrong with my child and the ways they could or couldn’t help him. But no one told me what I could do that might actually work. So I turned to other parents to find out what it was they did.
This advice intrigued me. I could change myself. (I sure wasn’t having much luck changing my son). I was definately being transformed already by my frequent failures and less frequent successes with a very challenging mental health care system. I had already discovered that I had to throw out all of society’s ideas of what a “good” parent or a “bad” parent is. The rules had all changed. Looked like I would have to change too. I had become a member of a very elite group of parents and wanted to learn from the other members.
Parenting a child with mental health needs can be difficult and exhausting. Typical parenting strategies from time outs to rewarding good behavior might get you a different result every time. Like many families whose children have mental health needs, I tried a system of rewards and consequences only to find that no matter how consistent I was, my son’s reactions were not. I knew how to parent my other son but often wondered, “How do I parent this child?’
Most of us learn from our own parents and the parents of our friends while growing up and form an idea about what a “good” parent is. Sooner or later we discover that we need to shift our focus from being a “good” parent to being an “effective” parent and it’s pretty tough to figure out just what that is. Some weeks it seems that Thomas Edison’s observations about the process of inventing should also apply to parenting. He remarked, ”I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. “
In many parent support groups or other groups of parents whose children have mental health needs, I have often observed that two parents with very different parenting styles can face almost identical challenges. An authoritarian parent and a more laissez-faire parent each find that their middle school child with a mood disorder has intense rages or irritability, for instance. Although their child’s behavior is not a result of their parenting style, the authoritarian parent is advised to be less rigid, while the lenient parent is told to have a firmer hand. And other parents might murmur (often in front of them), ”I would never let a child of mine behave like that.” They, too, are looking for ways to become the parent their child needs.
When parents tell me of their experiences and the many calls they have made, strategies they have tried, hours they have spent and love they have lavished, I often say, “How lucky your child is to have you as his parent.” And I can’t say it often enough. Therapists, teachers and treatments may all come and go. Some solutions might work for a while but then you have to find a new one. Most parents become advocates, walking encyclopedias and could write a critical review of children’s services for Consumer Reports. They are the parent who hangs in there, is resourceful and has a sense of humor is. Maybe that’s the parent we should expect to be.
It’s no surprise that online ads are targeting children, but the extent to which those children respond is startling. Data released from YuMe, a video ad network shows that children 14 and younger are the leaders in click-through rates on video pre-roll ads, the 15- and 30-second ads that run before a video, at 3.7%. That is nearly double the click-through rate of the next highest group, people over 35, at 1.9%. The information appeared in a Mark Walsh article on Online Media Daily.
Coincidentally (or not), just one day earlier, ABCNews.com reported on a study that shows junk food ads are littering websites popular with children. At the same time, a report commissioned by the U.S. Department for Children, Schools and Families shows that children are neither “helpless victims” nor “savvy consumers” as they are often portrayed by members of completing camps: child protectionists and marketers. The report did point out the increasing role of new media, saying rules changes should accommodate the “changing realities of a converged, digital environment, in which marketers increasingly work across multiple platforms.”
The food industry was hit with more criticism in December, this time by the chairman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Jon Leibowitz, who said the industry needs to improve the way it markets to children to help the overall fight against obesity. Like the DCSF report, Leibowitz says new media will have to be included in guidelines for marketing to children.
So as the use of video spreads further and further across the Internet and content-rich sites directed toward children integrate pre-roll and other video ads into their user experience, marketers will be keenly aware of how closely the federal government and child advocates will be monitoring the situation. Though marketing to children is an important issue, another element of YuMe data raises the question: will these children grow into youth and adults who are also inclined to click-through pre-roll and similar video ads, or is this just a trait found in children? We won’t get that answer for many years to come.
So…do you know your enemy? If not, you better get to know him because he has come to kill, steal and destroy everything good in your life….your marriage, your family, your happiness, your joy, your peace, your hope, your faith and your love. He wants desperately to steal your soul for eternity, keep you in spiritual bondage, keep you depressed, oppressed and useless to God.
So…do you know your enemy?
My best friend from childhood doesn’t, and his life, his marriage and his family is being destroyed by the enemy. He’s not a christian and the enemy is keeping his soul dead and condemned, and taking his family with him. One of my good friends doesn’t, and she’s depressed, full of anxiety, full of guilt, condemnation and fear. She thinks the enemy is a fairy tale. She is still a baby in her faith after 20 years. She’s a Christian but the enemy is the same. Another person close to me doesn’t know the enemy either. His life has been full of destrutive addictions, torment and torn relationships. He professes Christ but he is running from God. He doesn’t realize it. That’s how blind the enemy has made him.
So…do you know your enemy?
The American church tells everyone they do. But most don’t. They distort the Gospel, they live by religious rituals and legalistic laws, they cling to false doctrines and dominational cliques, quench the Spirit, allow homosexuals to run their churches, turn a blind eye to the thousands and thousands of unborn children killed each year, vote for politicians that are hell-bent on removing all traces of God from our society, cater to their country club congregations at the expense of the world’s lost and hurting, and bow to our government and status quo to protect their money and worldly kingdoms. I could go on and on but what I really want to know is….
Each month this entry provides a categorized listing of the posts from the prior month. So, here the final “This Month in the Middle” for 2009 summarizing entries during December! Make sure you check out our Index Page as well.
A Christmas Carol Advent
December 1 – Christmas With A Capital “C” (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/01/2009]
December 2 – O Little Town of Bethlehem (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/02/2009]
December 3- Away In A Manger (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/03/2009]
December 4 – This Baby (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/04/2009]
December 5 – Do You Hear What I Hear? (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/05/2009]
December 6 – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/06/2009]
December 7 – Manger Throne (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/07/2009]
December 8 – We Three Kings (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/08/2009]
December 9 – While Shepherds Watched (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/09/2009]
December 10 – O Come All Ye Faithful (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/10/2009]
December 11 – Joy To The World (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/11/2009]
December 12 – Angels We Have Heard On High (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/12/2009]
December 13 – God is With Us (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/13/2009]
December 14 – O Come O Come Emmanuel (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/14/2009]
December 15 – Christmas Hymn (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/15/2009]
December 16 – Go Tell It On the Mountain (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/16/2009]
December 17 – Babe in The Straw (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/17/2009]
December 18 – Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/18/2009]
December 19 – Mary’s Song (Breath of Heaven) (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/19/2009]
December 20 – The First Noel (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/20/2009]
December 21 – Mary’s Boy Child (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/21/2009]
December 22 – Come And Worship (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/22/2009]
December 23 – O Holy Night (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/23/2009]
December 24 – Silent Night (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/24/2009]
December 25 – It’s About the Cross (A Christmas Carol Advent) [12/25/2009]
Children’s Ministry / Kid’s Stuff
Phillipians 4:6-7 (Seeds Family Worship) [12/26/2009]
Santa Claus and Children’s Ministry (Children’s Ministry Think Tank) [12/29/2009]
Children’s Ministry Moments
Everybody Needs Jesus (Children’s Ministry Moment #7) [12/28/2009]
This Month in the Middle
This Month in the Middle (October 2009) [12/27/2009]
This Month in the Middle (November 2009) [12/31/2009]
Misc.
Dad in the Middle – The Year in Review [12/30/2009]
Return to the “This Month in the Middle” index page.
You may be saying, “That’s all fine and good, Sam. But how does that apply to my daily life?” So, let’s explore some ways that serving a grace-filled God impacts our lives. First up: what does it mean to be grace-filled people? As a parent some of my most basic examples of Christian living come from my interactions with my children. And somewhere along the line I learned about what parenting experts call “retreating with dignity.” Children make mistakes all the time. Some parents choose to put their children on the spot, accusing them of making a mistake. Sometimes that works. Other times, all that does is intimidate the child into lying.
But when you allow a child to “retreat with dignity,” you give them ample opportunities to right their wrongs. You give them the chance to do right thing rather than immediately confronting them. When children feel they can trust the adult, they will open up to them. That’s difficult for parents to do – it requires humility, patience, self-control, and a certain leveraging of authority. Here’s a personal example. Sometimes our children tell us they have brushed their teeth when really, they haven’t been in the bathroom long enough to do so. And, certainly, there was no toothpaste involved. We can react one of two ways. We can say, “I know you didn’t brush your teeth – there wasn’t enough time! Get back in there!” Or we can say, “Wow, that was quick! Do you need another minute to brush some more?” the second one allows a child to retreat with dignity – without shame and condemnation.
Really, as grace-filled people, we have the same options. Do we strong-arm people into confessions of guilt or do we allow the Holy Spirit to convict? Chances are we’ve had plenty of chances to overlook the ingratitude and inappropriate remarks of others during the holidays, right? Listen to some scriptures about being grace-filled people in moments of great annoyance:
A foolish person shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult. (Prov. 12:16)
A person’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense. (Prov. 19:11)
Peter, the disciple known for sticking the proverbial foot in his mouth, echoes Proverbs:
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 4:8-11)
That’s the definition of graciousness – what grace looks like when Christians display it. It’s giving someone the benefit of the doubt, knowing that God will correct them in his timing, not ours.
So, what’s another area where grace can impact practical living? How about our family life? It’s normally our spouses and children that bear the brunt of our graceless words and actions. And that’s part of being a family. But what about a grace-filled family? What would a family centered on grace look like? Well, for families, there’s a simple formula: grace = space. Family members need space to be who they are, to make mistakes, and feel unconditionally loved in the process. And for that to happen, several things have to go out the window.
First, spouses and children have to be free of unspoken expectations about who they must be. All parents have expectations for their children…and spouses have expectations for one another. But when family members are held to a standard they do not know about much less are able to meet, defeat and resentment set in. Second, a grace-filled family is free of control and manipulation. One family member cannot hold the others “hostage” through intimidation, guilt, shame, emotional outbursts, and the like. To do so undercuts the trust and respect that God desires as the foundation of each family.
Does that mean that we shouldn’t have standards of behavior and consequences for our children? I’m not saying that at all. But how we apply those standards makes all the difference in the world. Once again, look at Jesus. He derived the same results as the Pharisees, but did so in a way that promoted love and freedom rather than legalism and fear. Likewise, a grace-filled family has the following qualities. Spouses work as a team rather than assign blame. They don’t drudge up past failures. They defer to each other and are more interested in what’s best for everyone involved. And finally, they allow God to do the correcting, not each other. Do we as parents as spouses have moments where cajoling, threatening, and manipulation occur? Sure. But for families walking in grace towards one another, those can be the exception – not the rule.
The FCC requires all cell phone manufacturers to warn consumers to never carry their cell phone in their pocket or they will be exposed to radiation emission that exceeds federal safety guidelines.
The entire cell phone industry knows this dirty little secret and they are hiding it from consumers!! Nope, it’s not some wild conspiracy theory – it’s the ugly truth they don’t want you to know about! Skeptical?! I don’t blame you…. I couldn’t believe it myself. But, here are the facts:
I discovered that the BlackBerry cell phone I purchased for my 16 year old daughter had an FCC-required consumer safety warning to never carry the phone closer than 1” from the body or radiation would exceed the FCC safety limit of 1.6 SAR (the measurement of heat absorbed during exposure to cell phone radiation). She had been carrying it for 8 months in her pocket (as do most children, teens and young adults) receiving thousands of texts and phone calls each month with the phone directly against her body. Because that particular phone had the highest radiation of any cell phone on the market, the amount of radiation emitted when closer than 1” from the body most certainly exceeded the 1.6 SAR safety limit. The required safety warning which would have warned her to never carry the phone in her pocket was not in the user guide so we might have seen it; it was located on the CD that came with the phone which we had no hope of seeing as it was located in the bottom of the box; once I heard about the CD and found the silly thing, the safety warning which was supposedly on the CD could not be read on my MAC! It required a PC to even be read. Also, the elusive .pdf file which contained the safety warning was not referenced anywhere in the product literature.
FCC requires ALL cell phone manufacturers to warn users that the radiation level can be dangerous if carried in the pocket. Were you warned?
After a bit of research, I discovered that ALL cell phone manufacturers are required to inform consumers of this warning although few consumers ever see it since the FCC allows this warning to be buried in fine print in an obscure place in the user guide within technical radio frequency emission jargon. If you check every word of the user manual that came with your cell phone, you might see it. Get out a magnifying glass, as it will be in incredibly small type font. And, it will be buried in some FCC “disclosure” stuff about radio frequency emissions or “separation distance”. Go on, see if you can find it. Unless you have a BlackBerry, which will NOT have the warning anywhere in the literature that came with your phone.
RIM hides the FCC-required safety warning in a .pdf file on a CD at the bottom of the stuff that comes with the BlackBerry!!
Research in Motion (RIM), the manufacturer of all the BlackBerry devices actually hides this crucial safety warning in a .pdf file which must be downloaded from a CD that ships in the bottom of every BlackBerry cell phone’s box. The FCC allows their buddies in the cell phone industry to put this warning on a disk or even on a website if a consumer could be reasonably expected to find it (47 CFR 15.21). There would be no way that a consumer COULD “reasonably” find a safety warning on a CD or website since RIM mentions it nowhere in the product literature. The FCC does little, if any oversight of cell phone manufacturers, so this industry-wide deception continues without consequence.
Well… even if you did find the safety warning, you might not recognize what it implies. Manufacturers have become really tricky about wording the warning in a way that makes no sense. Instead of just writing,
“Don’t carry the phone in your pocket or you’ll be exposed to radiation levels that exceed the FCC-established safety limit,”
they write bizarre, misleading “suggestions”, like, “Always maintain a minimum separation distance of 1″ OR better yet… “Refer to body-worn configuration requirement”.
You are now warned. Spread the word to children, teens and others who carry cell phones in their pockets!
Don’t let your kids carry cell phones in their pockets. Be informed. Find the safety warning for your phone and call your service provider and complain that the FCC-required safety warning needs to be in a prominent location in language a consumer would understand. Better yet, write to the president of your cell phone service provider or file a formal complaint with the FCC.
Demand that the cell phone industry stop hiding the safety warning!!
Most importantly, purchase cell phones with the lowest SAR level. But, don’t rely on CNET’s chart to research various cell phone radiation levels as they only list the SAR level at the head, not at the body when carried in a holster. This can be misleading as a phone can be rated quite low when held to the head, but emit the highest radiation on the market when carried on the body. Also, about 50% of the SAR values on the CNET radiation chart are just flat-out wrong when checked against the actual FCC reported values. The chart at the link below is the best one to reference as it lists the highest SAR value for a particular phone, whether it’s the rating at the head or when carried in a holster. And it’s updated weekly to fix any errors (Note: I don’t endorse any of their products as I don’t know if radiation shields are effective):
PS I need to give some kudos to Apple. The tiny, almost unreadable safety warning that appears in the iPhone literature (if you look hard enough), is one of the only warnings to mention, in consumer-friendly language, not to carry the phone in the pocket. It’s a tiny step in the right direction for consumer safety. Now, Apple…..just make the dang warning big enough so someone could read it. And, put it in a place that a user might just happen to see it!!
I am magnetic and I repell.
Can you watch?
I had the privilege of tutoring his children Ashley, Christine and Tony the year they were here. They are very intelligent children and I enjoyed teaching them. For that year I looked forward to going to their apartment every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon to teach them English. I also looked forward to joining them for dinner each time and eating Korean food. I learned a lot about Korea and Korean culture from Dr. Jung and his family during our times together. We also enjoyed some fun times such as a Lincoln Saltdogs Baseball Game.
Our time at the Saltdogs Baseball game was our last time have a fun activity together before Dr. Jung and his family went back to Korea. I was grateful to be able to have a fun time with them as our last memory together after a long and difficult time watching our friend In Keun die from cancer.
It’s no surprise that online ads are targeting children, but the extent to which those children respond is startling. Data released from YuMe, a video ad network shows that children 14 and younger are the leaders in click-through rates on video pre-roll ads, the 15- and 30-second ads that run before a video, at 3.7%. That is nearly double the click-through rate of the next highest group, people over 35, at 1.9%. The information appeared in a Mark Walsh article on Online Media Daily.
Each month this entry provides a categorized listing of the posts from the prior month. So, here the final “This Month in the Middle” for 2009 summarizing entries during December! Make sure you check out our Index Page as well.